Welcome Home
by FootlooseandFancyFree
Summary: Sokka returns to the Gaang in Ba Sing Se after two long years on mission in the Fire Nation. What will change with the warrior's return? Tokka. Some fluff.
1. Chapter 1

At that moment, nothing would have made Sokka happier than the massive walls of Ba Sing Se looming over the horizon to the east.

The great walls of the Earth Kingdom City welcomed the water tribe warrior home, after two long years in the former Fire Nation. He had been helping Fire Lord Zuko with the demilitarization of the Fire Nation Capital, which had been overtaken by the Earth Kingdom armies after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai. He had had plenty of good ideas for rebuilding the capital, and the new Fire Lord had valued his opinion greatly. But his two years in the Imperial City were up, and Sokka looked forward to seeing his old friends again. The Gaang had been separated for far too long, and it had given him time to think.

Technically, he and Suki were still together, but things had been…well, shaky between the two. The Kyoshi warrior had come to visit him once or twice in the Fire Nation, but she had been distant and cold the entire time. He sensed things were soon coming to an end between the two. He supposed it was for the best. His feelings for the young warrior were not what they used to be, and he didn't want her to get hurt. And he was developing feelings for someone else.

Anyway. As he was parting, Zuko had lent him his fastest eelhound and a battalion of Fire Nation soldiers. He had dropped the escort at the first outpost he could find. He trusted Zuko, of course, but the armored firebenders made him nervous. He had made the rest of the five hundred mile journey alone.

As the giant eelhound approached the thousand-foot high walls of Ba Sing Se, two guards in white uniforms slid their way down the wall. They were White Lotus sentries, the soldiers who had replaced the Dai Li as the guardians of the city. The two men saluted Sokka.

"Sir!" One of them said. "We are glad to have you back in our city, sir." Sokka gave the man a lazy half-salute back. Spirits, he was tired.

"It's good to be back." He said. He hopped off the eelhound and handed the reins to the sentry. The other sentry took a wary look at the massive beast before taking a horse stance and pushing his outstretched hands down. There was a grinding of rock on rock, and a large piece of the wall collapsed, leaving a space for Sokka to walk through. He gave a small nod to the sentries who snapped him a salute. Well, one of them did. The other was currently being dragged up the wall by the eelhound, screaming for his colleague's help.

The remaining sentry escorted Sokka to the inner ring of the city, the wealthy part of town. The Earth King, newly returned from his nomadic travels across the world, allowed the Gaang to stay in one of the nicest houses in the city, indefinitely. They were war heroes, after all.

The war haunted Sokka. He hated to admit it, but there it was. He had dreams every night. Dreams of the failed invasion during the eclipse, dreams of the attack on the Northern water tribe. Dreams of the first attack he remembered on his village, the one that had taken his mother from him.

But the worst were the dreams about the airship battle. They were always horrifying, and they always ended differently. But all of the endings had one thing in common; they all ended with Toph dying.

Sometimes she would slip out of his grasp as she hung from the observation platform of Ozai's ship. Sometimes she would be crushed by a falling piece of metal he had been unable to protect her from. Sometimes she would be attacked by a firebender before he could cut the soldier down. But it was always his fault. Always his fault.

The escort took him across endless streets and through countless alleyways until they finally reached the house-actually, it was more like an estate.

It was the size of Toph's family mansion back in Gaoling, Sokka remembered. He had stayed in the house with the Gaang, Ty Lee, and even Mai and Zuko for a few weeks before they left for the Fire Nation. Sokka had gotten lost more times than he could count, and never felt quite at home in the large manor house. Toph, Zuko, Mai, and even Ty Lee had no problem making their way around the place.

The White Lotus sentry left Sokka at the gate of the house, snapping him a crisp salute before departing. He opened the small iron gate and walked up the path to the door. He stepped up on the front steps, took a deep breath, and knocked.


	2. Chapter 2

Toph would have recognized those footsteps anywhere. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she stood up from her chair. She hadn't felt those particular footsteps in years, but she was sure it was him. Is it? She tapped the solid earth with her bare toes, making sure. Yes, it was definitely him. She laid back in the chair. Just play it cool, Toph, she told herself.

"Snoozles is back." She shouted into the house, trying to keep her voice normal. She could hear the strain in her voice as she tried to hold back her excitement. She was sure the rest of the people in the house could hear it too.

Two seconds after she spoke, the rumble of several pairs of footsteps reached her feet. Soon after, two or three people ran into the room.

"Sokka's back?" Katara asked excitedly. As if on cue, there was a knock on the door.

He had barely touched his knuckles against the wood of the door before it swung open and a pair of thin, blue-clothed arms grabbed him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Sokka!" A familiar voice squealed. Sokka laughed and pulled his sister back into a big hug.

"Good to see you again, Katara." He said quietly. "I missed you." He looked over the waterbender's shoulder and saw a familiar figure standing in the doorway.

Spirits, that kid had grown. Aang was fifteen now and almost as tall as the warrior was. He was broad-shouldered and still carried his staff. He wore air nomad robes, yellow and red. Sokka disentangled himself from his sister and looked the Avatar in the eyes.

"You been treating my sister right?" He poked the airbender in the chest. Aang looked back at him with a piercing gaze.

"Anything else would be uncivilized." He said simply. Sokka stared at his sister's boyfriend for a second more before grabbing his forearm and pulling him into a traditional water tribe embrace.

"It's great to see you again, Aang." Sokka said, grinning. Aang returned the embrace and smiled his traditional wide grin. Sokka could've laughed; some things never change.

"We missed you around here, Sokka." Aang said.

"I missed you guys too." Sokka replied happily. Back with the Gaang, he suddenly felt a rush of happy memories. But there was something missing. Someone.

"Hold on," He said, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Where is our resident metalbender?" A pebble flew across the room and hit him hard in the left temple. "Ow!" It wasn't so much an expression of pain as one of surprise.

"Over here, meathead." A singsong voice called from the corner. Sokka turned around. What he saw sent his heart into overdrive.

Toph refused to take long journeys, especially on the flying bison, so he hadn't been able to see her during his time in the fire nation. Spirits, she had changed.

She was what, fifteen, sixteen now? Just a year or two younger than Sokka. She still wore her hair in her trademarked bun, but he noticed it was shinier and longer than it had been two years ago. Her face had become sharp and defined, her eyes a stunning pale green. The quick-witted, sarcastic little blind girl he had fallen in love with after the war had vanished; in her place was a beautiful young woman, all curves and soft lines, nearly as tall as he was.

She still wore the same belt around her waist, but her light green tunic had been replaced with a pair of black silk pants and a deep green shirt that somehow made her look elegant and casual at the same time.

Get a hold of yourself, meathead! You have a girlfriend, you jackass. A part of Sokka's brain argued. Sokka broke out of his trance and grinned awkwardly.

"Good to see you again, Toph." He said nonchalantly (he hoped). Toph grinned as she tapped the ground with her toes surreptitiously.

"Good to see you too, Snoozles." She said sarcastically.

"I just-you really feel the need to do that?"

"It's been a while since I've been able to pull that one." Toph said. She continued tapping the ground with her toes, trying to get a good look at Sokka without him noticing. Wow, he got tall, she thought. Tall and broad. She allowed herself a small smile. He wasn't a scrawny water tribe boy anymore. No, he was a man now. Her stomach did flops and a chill went down her spine. She was amazed. She hadn't seen the water tribe warrior in almost two years and he still had the same effect on her. Spirits.

"Two years and I'm still falling for the same tricks." And the same girl. He looked around for something to distract him. "Anybody seen Suki?" The Kyoshi warrior was absent from the reunion party.

"Training with the other fan girls in the back yard." Toph said quietly. Sokka nodded.

"I'm going to go say hello to her." He said, walking through the doorway. Aang and Katara followed.

"Say hi to your girlfriend for me, Snoozles!" Toph shouted, trying to sound sarcastic. It did little to hide the sadness in her voice.


	3. Chapter 3

It took Sokka almost five minutes to find his way from the kitchen in the front of the house to the door that led to the back yard. After living his entire life in an igloo with only one room, he found it hard to believe so much space was necessary. He had seen the Beifong mansion; surely that was far too much room for three people. He pushed the door open and stepped outside into the blinding sunlight.

"Alright girls, try that form one more time!" A commanding voice shouted from the lawn. Sokka did his best to adjust to the higher light conditions as he watched the warriors.

Suki stood in front of a group of about ten fighters, all dressed in green dresses and white face paint. She walked the ranks as the women performed a spiraling movement, fans flashing in the sun.

"Ty Lee, keeps those arms straight!" Suki shouted. "Lo, you're too stiff. Loosen up. Chin, what did I tell you about keeping your knees bent? Limber, people, limber!" She sighed and wiped her brow. "Alright, girls, break for five. Get some water." She watched as the girls disbanded and began to chat amongst themselves. Sokka walked up to the Kysohi warrior and tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around on one foot, a look of surprise on her face.

"Oh, it's you." She said coldly. She grabbed a rag from a nearby bench and began to wipe the makeup from her face. She started to walk away from Sokka, and he had to jog to catch up with her. They walked in awkward silence for a minute.

"How was your trip?" Suki broke the silence with the formally posed question.

"Not bad," Sokka said, glad that there was something to talk about for once. "Got through the Fire Nation without much trouble. It was the Serpent's Pass that was trouble. The ferry's been down since the beginning of the siege, so I had to swim."

"You swam across the Serpent's Pass?" Suki asked. For the first time in the conversation, she was beginning to show some real interest.

"Eelhound." Sokka explained. The eelhound had carried him across the thin strip of water that was the Serpent's Pass without any trouble.

"Oh." There it went. The interest slipped away from her eyes more quickly than he thought possible. More silence followed. They walked for another minute before Sokka turned to look at his girlfriend.

"Suki, what's wrong?" He asked sharply. He grabbed her arm, trying to get her to face him. She spun quickly, her razor-sharp fan blades millimeters from his carotid artery.

"What do you think is wrong, Sokka?" She replied quickly, anger seething from her eyes. "You left for two years. You left me here, alone, for two years."

"I wanted to take you-"

"That's crap and you know it." Suki didn't let him finish his sentence. "You didn't want me cramping your style with all of your new Fire Nation friends."

"Suki, I love you-"

"No you don't." Suki said, tears streaming freely from her eyes now. "Maybe you used to, but you don't anymore. It's Toph. It's always been Toph. I've seen the way you look at her. You love that blind girl more than you love me."

"Suki-"

"No." Suki said, wiping her eyes. "I don't want to hear it." She snapped her fans shut. "We're done, Sokka. You don't love me anymore and I don't love you anymore. And honestly, I'm sick of pretending to think you still like me. You obviously don't. So we're finished." Suki turned on her heel and walked away towards her group, leaving Sokka standing in the middle of the garden wondering what in the name of Tui and La had just happened. He stood rooted to the spot for another thirty seconds before finally sighing and walking inside again.

You screwed up, Sokka. A tiny voice in his head whispered. You screwed up real bad. The one person who you actually thought cared about you actually hates you. You're alone, kid.

"Hey, Snoozles!" A voice called from the doorway. Sokka looked up and felt his spirits rise instantly. Toph was standing on the porch, arms crossed, one of her hands playing idly with a loose bang in her hair. She looked beautiful, as always.

"What's up?" Sokka crossed the garden with long strides. He stepped up on the porch and leaned against the railing.

"Katara's gone full vegan while you were gone." Toph said. "she's making some weird thing with cauliflower for dinner." Sokka frowned.

"I'm making a disgusted face, for your information." He said. Toph laughed and punched Sokka in the arm.

"Do you want to come to Wo Hung's with me to get some real food?" she asked. Sokka considered; he could use some meat, for sure, and she was always good for company.

"Only on one condition." He said, taking Toph's arm in his. "You're paying, Ms. Beifong."

"I most certainly will not!" Toph said, laughing. She pushed Sokka playfully, but held on to his arm. He was warm, and comforting, and she felt safe in the strong warrior's arms. If she had it her way, she would never let go.

"Oh, I think you will." Sokka said playfully. "Or else I won't grace you with the honor of my presence." Toph pushed him lightly again.

"Oh, twisting my arm, are you?" She said. "Fine. I didn't want you to come anyway."

"I don't want to come." They kept walking, out of the house and down the street. The two walked in silence. It was not the awkward silence Sokka had faced with Suki. It was a comfortable silence. Nothing needed to be said between the two friends.

"You and Suki broke up." Toph said, matter-of-factly. Sokka looked up. He had been keeping his eyes on the road, but now he focused on the girl's face. Her light green eyes seemed to glow in the sunset.

"Yeah." He said. He realized he probably didn't sound nearly as upset as he should. Suddenly he realized he didn't care. He had known they would eventually break up a long time ago. "How did you know?" Toph hung her head.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I know I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but my hearing-" Sokka stopped her.

"Toph." He said. "It's okay. Really, it's fine. I know what you mean. It's okay." Toph smiled weakly as they entered the restaurant. Sokka walked up to the maitre'd and put a few silver coins on the table.

"Table for two, please." The server smiled kindly and took the coins. He handed a few menus to one of the waitresses.

"Fetch us a table for this pretty young couple, would you, Li?" He said. Toph blushed, and she and Sokka said together:

"We're not a couple."


	4. Chapter 4

The young waitress, Li, led Toph and Sokka to a table in the far corner of the restaurant and handed them a pair of menus. Fine-tuned though her earthbending senses were, she couldn't read the menu. Sokka went down the list of items, reading them out to Toph and making passing remarks.

"Chicken dumplings, those are always good…" He ran his finger down the menu as Toph listened. "Lo mein, that's what we had last time…"He spoke quietly, matter-of-factly. Toph leaned back in her seat, her toes tapping absent-mindedly on the hard-packed dirt. She could feel everything within twenty feet-the chairs, tables, the servers-she could even feel Sokka's heart beating, just a few feet away.

They decided on noodles and tea for the both of them. The waitress brought them their tea and set it on the table before giving them a small smile and leaving. Toph felt the waitress leave, waited until she was out of earshot, and then looked at Sokka. It was good having her best friend back in town. It had been almost two years since she had seen him. Not that she had missed him, of course. All right, maybe she missed him a little bit. Without Sokka in Ba Sing Se, things had been horribly boring. No one to pull pranks with, no one to fight with, no one to go out to dinner with her when Aang and Katara were going tofu-crazy…

"I missed you." She said under her breath. Sokka looked up from his tea.

"Sorry?" He said, setting the tea down. "Didn't catch that."

"I said you're probably pissed." She said. You meathead! Can't you hear anything? "What with Suki breaking up with you and all."

Did she say what I think she just said? Sokka frowned. "No, I'm…fine. I kinda figured, you know. We'd been growing apart for a while. It was my fault, I guess. I was gone for too long."

"Yeah, well, I didn't miss you." Toph said, playing with her bangs nervously. She couldn't even see the young water tribe warrior, but she could feel him staring at her.

"Yeah, I know you didn't." Sokka said, smiling. Spirits, she looked cute when she did that. He watched as she played with her hair. Stop it, stupid! You broke up with Suki half an hour ago. Have some self-control!

"So what now?" Toph asked, taking a sip of her tea. It wasn't as good as Iroh's, but it would have to do. "What are you going to do now that you're back in Ba Sing Se?"

"King Kuei offered me a position on the council." Sokka said. "They're kicking around an idea for unified government-The United Republic of Nations, or something like that."

"Sounds boring." Toph said in a singsong voice. "Meetings and dinner parties and old guys in funny robes."

"I know, I know." Sokka replied. "But they need me. They hate to admit it, but this council won't get anything done unless they have someone a little less…conservative…on the board."

"And that would be you." Toph said as the noodles arrived. She thanked the waitress as Sokka dug into the noodles. "Well, if anyone is qualified to get anything done in this city, it's you." Sokka stopped eating and looked up.

"Toph Beifong," he said through a mouthful of noodles. "Did you just compliment me?" Toph blushed and looked down.

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it, meathead." She said, smiling.

"I don't plan to." They ate in comfortable silence for some time.

"So how did you survive without me in town for two years?" Sokka asked, smiling. He polished off the plate of noodles and pushed it away, leaning back in his chair. "Surely it was a great struggle without your fearless leader." Toph laughed.

"Somehow I survived." She said. "It was pretty boring, actually. There was no one around to pull pranks on Aang and Katara."

"Sounds incredibly dull." Sokka said, mimicking Mai's deadpan tone of voice. Toph laughed. Sokka saw lots of Mai during his time in the Fire Nation, and honestly, he had no idea how the Fire Lord could stand her.

"Oh, it was." Toph replied. "I worked a lot on my metalbending. I can manipulate objects remotely now. She pointed her hand at the silver fork sitting on the table. Instantly, it began to creak and crumple. Sokka's jaw dropped.

"Toph, that's…that's incredible!" He said. Toph blushed and started playing with the bracelet made of space rock he had given her years ago. She decided not to tell him that she hadn't taken it off since he left. It was the only thing that reminded her of him.

"Took me almost a year to get that far," She said modestly. "I can only do small objects so far, but eventually I'll be able to do anything with it." Sokka grinned.

"Have I ever mentioned how cool it is you invented metalbending?"

"You could stand to mention it more." Toph replied, giggling. Sokka's heart melted; there was that giggle he missed so much in the Fire Nation. Spirits, Sokka! Get a hold of yourself, man!.

"So…" Sokka said warily. He was almost afraid to ask the question that was on his mind. "Does the lovely Toph Beifong have a young man wrapped around her little finger yet?" He could have slapped himself. Stupid stupid stupid!

Toph could feel the blood rushing up to her cheeks. She raised her hand, playing with her hair to try and hide the blush quickly growing on her face. She reached across the table with the other hand and punched Sokka in the shoulder.

"Who in the name of Oma would want to go out with me? Nobody, that's who." she said defensively. Certainly not you. Sokka frowned.

"Hey, come over here." Sokka patted the bench seat next to him. Toph slid out of her seat and sat next to the water tribe boy. They were less than a foot away. She could feel his breath; she could feel his heartbeat.

"I know for a fact that half the boys in Ba Sing Se would be falling down at your door just to speak with you." Sokka said. Toph blushed and put her head down so he wouldn't see. He touched her face and looked her in the eye.

"Toph. You are strong, and witty, and clever, and beautiful." He said. "You always laugh at my jokes and we pull pranks on Aang and Katara and Zuko, and you make blind jokes because you're so amazing I forget you can't see. You're the greatest earthbender who ever lived. You're kind and compassionate and thoughtful and talking to you is the easiest thing in the world." Toph's stomach was filled with butterflies by now. She tried to get a word in, but the kid never shut up, did he?

"You invented metalbending and took out an entire Fire Nation airship fleet. You saved my life more times than I can count and without you we never would have been able to defeat the Fire Lord." Sokka took a breath.

"What are you trying to say?" Toph said quietly. The butterflies had turned into hornetwasps now, and it wasn't getting any better.

"I'm trying to say that there isn't a single person I know who wouldn't give their left arm just to spend a day with you." Sokka said, smiling.

"Like who, for instance?" Toph said angrily. Her head snapped up. Tears were welling in her eyes.

"Like me, for instance!" Sokka shouted back. In a second he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close. And just like that, he pressed his lips to hers.

Oh, spirits. Toph's mind raced as the water tribe warrior kissed her. Oma and Shu, what is going on here. He's kissing me, oh my spirits. His lips are so soft. Oh spirits. Calm down, Toph. Stay cool. She wrapped her arms around Sokka's neck and deepened the kiss. The butterflies in her stomach intensified. Oh, spirits, this is actually happening, isn't it.

As their lips touched, Sokka was somewhat surprised the earthbender didn't slap him across the face and bury him in the restaurant floor. Wow, this is actually working. Tui and La, this is a dream. Wake up, Sokka. Slap yourself. Bang your head against the table. Do something, you bonehead!

But somehow this wasn't a dream, and he wasn't asleep, and this was incredible. He wrapped his hands around Toph's back and kissed her harder. He never wanted to let go. He never would have, if it was his choice. But he was running out of breath and he thought it would be uncomfortable for both of them if he were to pass out. He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against Toph's.

"I love you, Toph." He said in between breaths. "I have for a long time now. It's just, during the war-" Toph giggled and stopped him talking.

"I love you too, Sokka." She said breathlessly. "Ever since the Serpent's Pass. But I thought you and Suki-" This time, it was Sokka who stopped her.

"Who's Suki?" He said jokingly. He kissed her once more, a quick peck on the lips. Toph punched him in the chest, smiling devilishly.

"C'mon," she said. "Twinkletoes and Sugar Queen are gonna think we've been pulling scams again." She stood up, smiling softly at Sokka. He dug a couple of gold pieces out of his pocket and threw them on the table. Then, fingers intertwined, the two walked out of the room and into the front lobby. The maitre'd, standing at the podium, noticed them holding hands and smiled.

"Not a couple, huh?" He said. Sokka gave him a death stare, but Toph just laughed and pushed her new boyfriend out the front door.


End file.
